Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

versities closed their doors tomorrow." Black students' demands have
helped to produce stepped-up recruitment efforts, and although the figure
is still pitifully low, there were more black students enrolled in colleges
in the state of Massachusetts in 1968-69 (3,019) than there were in all
of New England in 1965-66. And, the Massachusetts figure is expected
to dramatically increase over the next few years . For example, at the
University of Massachusetts we expect to have nearly a thousand black
students by the fall of 1970-most of whom will come from the ghettoes
of Springfield and Boston . We are not recruiting students who would
ordinarily go to black schools in the South but students who would have
difficulty enrolling in any college . In fact, there are presently several
"high risk" students on our campus who were rejected outright by black
schools because they did nat meet the conventional entrance requirements
.
The emphasis on increasing the enrollment of black students is certainly
not restricted to the state of Massachusetts . Large state universities
and colleges in the North are on expansive recruitment campaigns in the
ghettoes, some enrolling as many as 600 black students a year. These
programs (1) assist students in getting admitted to college ; (2 ) provide
financial support needed to attend college, and (3 ) furnish academic
assistance needed to stay in college .
In the past, denied black students were measured by the same academic
criteria that were applied to other students . No recognition was given
to the crippling influence of ghetto schools . By using such criteria, these
students were usually rated as academically marginal at best . Being
marginal in these respects, however, may have nothing to do with their
potential or intellect, it merely indicates that they do not meet the conventional
white middle class standards of admission . It is incumbent
upon black students and faculty in the North to continue to pressure
their respective universities to abandon the system of recruiting only
the "best" students which . therefore ultimately leads them to search for
students in the South . I think it is ludicrous for black students from,
say, Northwestern University, to go all the way to Atlanta, Georgia,
searching for black students when there are thousands of black students
in the ghettoes of nearby Chicago just itching for a chance to enroll in
college .
NEGRO DIGEST March 1970 9